Weather: DRY

This past month the weather has been pretty dry with only small light showers hitting the Lake District meaning very little whitewater boating for myself and others however I have been utilizing my new home to its advantage, being that I live roughly 20m from Lake Windermere. So I have been getting out in the long evenings and practicing techniques such as my C to C roll, Back-Deck roll, Double Pump and from the double pump have been attempting to bow or stern stall which is proving tricky.

The photo above was captured by myself. It shows Pete K and myself in front practicing on the flat water. This was taken along with many other photos from a static camera on the bank of the lake set to capture images with the intention of creating a timelapse however the idea did not turn out as planned.

The End of an Era

For the past three years I have been studying at the University of Cumbria on the BA(HONS) Adventure and Media course. In the past month I have completed the final pieces of work for my degree and am now awaiting my final results to then graduate in July.

Leven at 0.76 taken by Thomas H

The course combines outdoor activities with photography and video which initially led me to setting up this blog in September of 2010. 

I joined the course having very little knowledge of camera equipment or techniques but had a respectable amount of outdoor skills and experience that has helped me to relax when out on activities and focus on using the camera etc.

Having now finished I currently have a good amount of free time which I am using to  further develop my paddling skill and ability to enable me to get closer to attaining my ambitions.

I recently purchased a new kayak to aid in this development, a Wavesport Project X 56. The plan is working and I am trying to squeeze in as much paddling as I can before I start my new job in Ambleside which should enable me to continue to live in the Lake District and paddle and practice my photography in any free time I have spare.

Travel Writing #5 - St. Bees Surf Kayaking

 

St. Bees beach apparently occasionally can get some pretty big surf with the right conditions. The surf is a beach break with the best waves produced when the tide is coming in, after strong westerly or south-westerly winds have died down. This information came from Magicseaweed.com a site I have used regularly when pursuing surf in the sea. Magic seaweed was saying there was going to be a 4-5ft swell coming in on this day. In the morning we had arranged to meet to catch these conditions and we did exactly as planned. However, what we got was a big menacing surf with short intervals, not ideal for learning or developing skills. Tom and Mike ventured into the white water first, both new to surfing on boards they were thoroughly challenged. After a few attempts they came out seeking advice but nothing I knew about surfing or the sea would help on this occasion. They struggled to get themselves and their boards over the whitewater that came after the waves had broken, being pushed back again and again. What they needed was PADDLES!

 

Luckily on this day I had anticipated these conditions and brought all my gear. Having watched Tom and Mike get thrown about for a short while I was intimidated by the waves. From the car park you could still hear the roar as each wave broke. I sat by myself in my kayak on the pebble beach for a while composing myself, trying to get in the right mental attitude for going straight into whitewater that would push me to my limits. Tyler Bradt, an accomplished whitewater kayaker, said in an interview

"Successful whitewater kayaking is 50% mental and 50% skill. Holding your nerve in and staying focused in these whitewater situations is key to applying your skills to the water your on at the time."

As a warm up exercise I envisaged myself crashing through the waves moving my arms in the motions I would need to perform. I imagined this in slow motion like you would see in the latest viral online whitewater paddling video. In my head I go through multiple waves speeding up the actions each time I go though a wave, this wakes up all the muscles needed for paddling. I also remind myself of the steps need to surf the waves back in. Paddle fast to get to the same speed as the wave, throw your weight forward to drop in then lean/edge in the direction you want to travel along the wave.  I must look pretty stupid doing it but it’s my thing.

 

After a short time of composure I moved into a position to quickly enter the water. I discussed with Tom and Mike that I was going to need a lull in the wave size to get out. I picked my moment, "Now Now Now!" Tom and Mike thrust me down the pebble beach and into the water. Straight away I was met by breaking waves or "the soup" trying to push me back onto the beach. I fight through it, getting out, this was the easy bit that I was pretty comfortable with, coming back in on the waves the right way up, is what I struggle with. Due to the messiness of the waves coming in it was hard to judge where was a safe place to sit and select a wave to catch, so I caught the first one I was prepared for and it turned out to be a monster.

For my ability in surf kayaking this wave was “pretty stinking big”. Due to my positioning, I didn’t need to paddle fast to get this one. Nor did I need to put my weight forward to drop in. Due to the size and steepness of this monster, coming down the face of the wave I had to lean as far back as possible and pull my legs up so not to nose dive. I managed to stop myself from nose-diving and surfed the wave straight until it broke. I then comfortably "Bongo slide" in the soup, nearly ending up right back on the beach and into the groyne! Luckily I avoided these. I paddled out once more and selected a further wave to catch.

After the thrill of successfully blasting down the first wave this second one was not so big. Whilst I paddled out for a second time and after my potential close encounter with the concrete and wooden groynes, I argued with myself as to whether to carry on in this sea state. This second wave was my last of the day. I decided to surf it right into the beach where my extraction team was waiting. With no life guards on the beach and Tom and Mike unable to swim or surf out through the waves I decided to call it a day as if I had come out of my boat in the waves I would have been in a pretty bad place with no way of being rescued, a place I didn't want to be and if I battled with concrete groynes, well I know how that one ends!  Although my session was short I'm massively chuffed with my effort successfully surfing one of the biggest waves of my life, even more to my delight a passer by managed to get the snaps of me, something that doesn't usually happen. 

 

Travel Writing #4 - National Student Rodeo 2013

Friday 1st saw the beginning of my three day reign as Official Club Captain for my University Paddling Club. During these three days I organised my university team members on a trip to The National Student Rodeo (NSR) the largest freestyle kayaking event in Europe. NSR is a student organised kayaking competition held at the National Water Sports Centre, Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham. The event is attended by clubs from all over the UK and is currently the best student event I have attended.

  

Friday is mainly a day of travel to the event arriving in the evening to register participants for your university, acquire your camping spot then crack out the drinks and attend the warm-up party. I had the joy of attending the Captains Meeting and represented my university well. Where other captains turned up with pen and notepad I turned up with all captains need, a drink and my captains sailor hat. As I had assumed it would be, the meeting was just to go over all the points in a pack of information that had been sent out to me with the booking information, which I had actually read.

 Saturday - starting off a little groggy from celebrating heavily with my friends who attend other universities around the UK. My hangover was quickly shrugged off by my paddling warm up and first few moments on the water. I was straight onto the whitewater course at 0900 to compete in the Extreme Slalom event. This event determines what heat you are put in for the actual Freestyle Rodeo Competition. It turned out this year I was put into the Intermediate category which I was pretty surprised at, as the only skill I showed was a roll, half a flat spin and making it through 1 of 2 gates. I was also pretty frustrated to have been put in the Intermediate category as if I had been in the Novice heat I might have actually been able to perform on the feature and win some amazing prizes however, it was not to be.

Sunday - Again I battled off a fighting hangover, got into my wet paddling gear and got on the water for the intermediate heat however, I was humiliated by swimming whilst warming up prior to my heat. I then ended up missing the start. I accepted that the heat was a loss pretty quickly when I saw majority of the competitors pulling off cartwheels in the select feature, a kayak move I could not match for points so I retired from the heat. I then got changed again and spent the rest of the afternoon snapping away photos of the few sponsored paddlers and friends appearing on the course in the hope to get some good shots to send off to the sponsoring companies.

Mens Expert Freestyle Finalists

After all competition heats and finals were completed the final part of the event was the prize giving where I became very jealous of all people called up to collect prizes. As prizes included free coaching days, masses of equipment and a few top of the range brand new shiny boats!.

We headed back to Penrith campus in the mini bus. During this journey most people drifted off to sleep and I was awoken by people trying to throw things in my mouth whilst I dribbled on myself. We arrived at campus and unloaded the trailer that had been our base for keeping my kayak and my colleagues media equipment in for the weekend.
I then had to drive my friends Lizzie and Pete down to Ambleside where I was to stay. Whilst driving the last ten minutes of the journey I noticed I was having real difficulty focusing on driving. I dropped Lizzie and Pete off with all their equipment and had a pizza with Pete with the intention of going for a drink with him and some others in town. Unfortunately not knowing it yet, by the time we had arrived the effects of the infamous Trent Belly had started to take hold.

George Younger (green) performing an entry move

The River Trent that feeds the whitewater course is infamous for making people ill. This is due to the sanitation of the water. The Trent holds a cocktail of chemicals and bacteria caused from run off from farmer’s fields and industrial factories along the river, mix these chemicals and bacteria together in the features of the whitewater course and you get a nasty stomach bug that is mainly contracted from people accidentally getting the water in their mouths and "drinking" it.

This bug lead to me leaving town early and deliriously walking to my good friends Mike and Tom's house where they put me up for the night. Tom had experienced this bug before so was very reluctant to come near me just in-case the bug turned contagious. He warned of what was to come, a night of pain and sickness. I'll leave out the nice details just say I haven't ever been as ill as I was that night.

 Since paddling at Nottingham I’ve done some research into the river and found that in 2009 the river contained traces of cyanide, it’s no wonder I was ill. Next time I go to paddle there I intend on trying some of the many tricks people say keep the bug away. One of which includes consuming large amounts of Coca-Cola. Hopefully next time at the event my paddling is more successful and the tricks work to keep the bugs at bay.

Travel Writing #3 - Conquering Liza Beck

Mike's brainchild, the first descent of Liza Beck had been in the planning for the past 5 weeks. Mike had been up and down Gasgale Gill scouting the beck, moving rocks and spotting the best lines down the rocky riverbed. All we needed was water.

Mike and Tom

On the day Mike was determined to paddle the beck, the amount of water just wasn't enough for me but for Mike who was intent on his quest to paddle the “previously un-paddled” it was a great confidence building experience. For me, although I hardly paddled and lugged my boat all the way up the Beck to then not paddle down, it was still a great adventure. We were also joined as ever by Tom who is the most experienced boater of the group and his knowledge of whitewater safety and rescue was used to safely anticipate the most daring section of the descent, Double Drop. A set of two reasonable sized drops in a narrow channel with interesting landings. 

To get ourselves and our kayaks to the top of the beck we used rucksack like straps attached to our kayaks, constructed by Mike. These proved great for Mike and Tom however mine needed some further development to be made more comfy for long steep hauls, so I had to shoulder my boat and endure the strain. Whilst moving up the gill we inspected interesting features whilst having breaks from carrying the boats a few times. After we reached the starting point, distinguishable by the flow of water uphill of us dispersing into smaller and smaller tributaries like branches of a tree, Mike and Tom adjusted their boats and packed away their carry straps whilst I readied my cameras.

We were off very slowly and bumping rather then paddling down the Beck. This wasn't what I was expecting. After enduring five minutes of hearing the rocks of the riverbed gouge new scrapes into the hull of my boat I opted from then on to get out and just film and be safety officer. So again I shouldered by boat and hastily skipped back down the path we had just come up, to a position below Mike and Tom to film them bouncing down. The Beck surprisingly, has a number of good features that if there was more water would be fantastic. The most noticeable Mike has come up with names for, like the most memorable one Double Drop. As Mike continued to bump down the Beck I continued to do my best to carry my stuff and film his efforts. After arriving back at the most paddle-able point at the foot of Gasgale Gill the sun came out and beamed down as if to praise Mike for his effort.

I think more water is a key factor if this descent is to be achieved by us or anyone else wanting a challenge. But, Mike has achieved what he set out to do, complete the first descent of the Liza proving it can be done. When we had packed away our stuff back into Tom's van I presented Mike and Tom with my first pieces of Whitewater Aptitude apparel. T-shirts I had printed with my logo on. Tomorrow I'm off down to Mike and Tom's house to go paddling again and show them the footage I took on the day and hopefully help Mike piece together a short video to Mike's specifications.

  

Below is also a snapshot of me taken from a video, captured from my GoPro mounted on my rear kayak mount whilst I was carrying the kayak. I rotated the image and made it black and white for dramatic effect.

 

I Ran the River Swale

This week last year I took photos and video of friends on the River Swale, North Yorkshire.

This week I paddled the River Swale and had friends video me for once!

On Tuesday of this week I joined four other friends all from UCLAN university and had a day of anxiousness, adrenaline, waterfalls, success and vocal celebrations. The feeling of accomplishment I felt that day, I have not felt in a long time and I had a permanent smile for the rest of the day. The waterfalls we were going over ranged from roughly 8ft to 15ft and were graded IV and V.

The rapid/river grading system in whitewater kayaking is based on skill required to negotiate the rapid, the hazards of a rapid and risk and outcomes of the rapids. The scale goes from I-VI. At the top of the scale, grade VI, a rapid that is grade VI is seen as not passable or if so only in very specific conditions. Upon this if you get the line wrong on the rapid or mess up your going to end up either dead or severely injured in hospital. A description of all the grades can be found here on UK river guidebook.

Hopefully in the future I can post a link to the video my friends took.

To show what we were paddling you can watch some videos of my firends from last year on my youtube channel. Click the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/WhitewaterAptitude

SUP

The past two weeks I have been getting out surf kayaking with on the sea at Bournemouth beach. I've been going with my friends Peza and Cheryl who have both been showing me up on Stand Up Paddle-boards (SUPs). We've been out a number of times over and the waves have gadually became better and more surfable until the last Saturday when the waves grew to a whopping continuous 4ft high the with the odd wave rolling in around 5-6ft. For my ability, at times, this was terrifying. To surf the waves firstly you needed to get "out back".  The outback in surfing is the area where you wait for the waves to come in, spot them, then ride them. To get out back I needed to time my paddling correctly so to not get caught up in the large aftermath of breaking waves and also not be at the same point where the waves were breaking. Unlike a surfer, in my kayak, I cannot dip underneath the breaking waves, i have to punch through them, a downfall to surf kayaking. However I managed to predict my paddling fairly well and get outback always relieved.

From here I was able to get in position to surf the waves coming in as best I could. after surfing the green wave then also surfing the strong broken wave. I would often end up all the way back on the beach and have to repeat the process of getting out back, a tiring action.

I unfortunately had one swim on this day after getting caught out by a huge steep wave as I was getting out back. I ended up trying to go over the it at the time it was steepest. Unfortunately due to the steepness of the wave and gravity instead of punching through the top of the wave. I felt my boat sliding back down the wave face and start to plain. So i started surfing the wave backwards. Something I can just about do on a small wave. This six footer was no match for me. I was unable to spin back around to face down the wave and ended up going over. I tucked up and felt as the wave broke and carried me all the way to the beach still upside down. I tried performing my C to C roll but in the foamy wash I couldn't managing. I chose to come out of my boat. I then had to get myself boat and paddle to shore only 15m away the dumping waves made it a struggle. I emptied my boat of water and carried on as I had been doing before.

At the beginning of our session the tide was in and I was keen to get on the water. However I didn't put on my new GoPro mount as I didn't want to have it trashed straight away which it would have done. As the tide dropped towards the end of my session the waves became unsurfable for me, so I got my DSLR out and snapped some photos of Peza on the diminishing leftovers from stood in the shallows.

We use the site MagicSeaweed to predict what the surf conditions are going to be like.

After these exciting times in the next few days I then had an equally exciting time doing my first piece of commercial/non commercial work for an old friend Sam of Cumulus Outdoors. I was creating a promotional video for them to promote their coasteering programs based along the Souths Jurassic Coastline. The experience was extremely beneficial. Learning what skills I need to further develop and how to approach future work projects.

GoPro Mount

I've been researching to make a pole style GoPro mount for my kayak for some time and being home has given me the access needed to tools and odd nuts, bolts and washers I needed to complete the creation. There are a number of options for creating something similar I got this design idea off the kayak tips, tricks and reviews site Unsponsored.

Firstly I acquired all the pieces I would need for the design and tools.

1x Cut down piece of steel
2x Bolts from original Fluid grab handle
1x Bolt and fitting Nut
1x Large Washer
2x 32mm End Cap Plug
1x Cut down piece of PVC pipe (not sure what diameter this was it was scrap i found in my garage). (55cm Long)
1x GoPro flat mount
1x Length of strong cord

1x Electric Drill
1x Metal Saw
1x Adjustable Spanner
1x Flathead Screw Driver
1x Allen Key set
Piping Glue

I removed the original rear grab handle from my Fluid Detox by unscrewing it and then used the original handle as a template for the new one. I cut the odd piece of steel to the correct length then  drilled two holes for the handle to be re attached then a third hole in the center of the handle. Thats that piece complete.

Now to complete the rest of the "base". Firstly drill a hole in ONE end cap. You should then be able to use the 1x Bolt and Nut and 1x Large Washer to construct it. I took into account I'm not always going to be using the GoPro mount and therefore have tried to keep the handle and base as snag free as possible so it can still be grabbed by someone in a rescue situation or possibly be used to clip the boat if it needs rescuing (hopefully will never happen!). To keep it snag free I shortened the Bolt I was using so to not stick out above the End Cap.

To create the removable pole glue the remaining End Cap Plug pieces into the PVC pipe and let it set. The PVC pipe is 55cm long. The final step is add a GoPro flat mount to the top End Cap. I'm going to be using some cord attached to my GoPro from the case to the grab handle incase the camera ends up getting knocked off the top in shallow water. See below for pictures of the final construct and a snapshot taken from one of my test videos.

Hart Ride the Storm >> Whitewater Aptitude

If you were a keen follower of my Hart Ride the Storm blog sorry for no notice of changing my name and blog web address. The name change has occurred across all my social platforms including.

*As a result of the name change many links to HARTrts content may be broken.*

• This Blog: http://whitewateraptitude.blogspot.co.uk/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/whitewateraptitude
• Twitter:     https://twitter.com/WWAptitude
• Youtube:   http://www.youtube.com/user/WhitewaterAptitude
• Vimeo:      https://vimeo.com/wwaptitude

Canford Weir

First post of 2013 Happy New Year

I've spent the past festive weeks at my home in Dorset getting out boating as much as possible on the local weir at Canford Magna or out on the sea.

The weir at Canford is on the River Stour. This location needs a lot of water and the river level rises to a state of high or flood Canford weir turns into a reasonable sized wave and stoppers. Jack and Josh, the paddlers I was boating with, both managed to have a good play on the weir however for myself it was a little intimidating looking very similar to the area where I broke my nose up in Cumbria. The anxiousness that kept coming over me as I was just getting onto the wave would then lead to me coming off the back so my efforts were always disheartening and frustrating. However we moved over to a different area where my efforts were rewarded. Level with the weir on river right there is a sluice gate that on this day was producing a long boxed in surf-able wave. At first from the water you couldn't quite see the whole size of the wave or its origin, putting me off even dipping my nose in this one. However we needed to do some gardening to to make it easier to get onto the wave. This gave me the oppotunity to see the wave fully and after I had removed the foliage that was obscuring our play area I jumped back in my boat and had an awesome number of blasts on it. The wave was very fast and I struggled to flatten my boat out to surf it straight therefore I kept zipping back and forth across the face of the wave which was a great success for myself. I recon I might have been leaning back to much which casued this. Next time I aim to slow it down a bit and stay on longer. Hoping to see Josh's footage from the session to take some personal points to work on.

Descent Cycles

The week has been spent completing coursework. The week has not been pleasant.

Today however I handed in that coursework and balance is slowly being restored to the Galaxy. Also today I helped out my good friend Tom get some photos and video for his soon to be constructed website for his new mountain bike guiding company that he is aiming to have up and peddling strong as soon as uni is finished. The day was a new experience and hard. I was running/stumbling/rolling around Whinlatter Forest on foot chasing after Tom and his friend David. The trails were icy and I did a fair bit of sliding about getting into positions to capture the specific burms, jumps and climbing sections the two selected. Although bright out in the open the wooded sections of the trails were particularly hard to get good sharp images. I was relying on my Canon 600D, 18-135mm lens, tripod and GoPro HD Hero to capture the action I intend to to go through the footage and images with Tom on Thursday. The result from the day weren't my best so i hope not to disappoint my pal. Below is a snapshot from my GoPro of me filming.

I'm hoping to also do some kayaking with Tom this week but its rather chilly. Check out my Facebook and Twitter for on the day updates on my activity. Links to these can be seen on my website that has also had some alterations to it and pictures added so make sure you look at them.

http://www.hartridethestorm.co.uk/

In the world of kayaking this week has been the start of the White Water Grand Prix 2012 where the sickest white water boaters in the world compete over two weeks to win the title. Among the white water community this events coverage has been shared and viewed countless times the content showcasing the highlights of the different stages set in Chile. The competition currently only at stage 3 has many different competitions to test the different abilities of the paddlers. One of my favourite stages from last year was the Big Wave Freestyle where athletes perform kayak tricks and flips whilst surfing a wave similar to that of what a surfer would however the waves stays in place on the river. This is called a standing wave. If you cant imagine what that looks like the link below is to one of my all time inspirational kayaking films showcasing some of the best freestyle atheletes some of whom are in the WWGP. Good luck to all the athletes in the competition especially the GB guys whom are lagging.

Stakeout - https://vimeo.com/8208615

Travel Writing #2 - Boater X

The highlight of this week by far was paddling on the Leven again. This was on the 28th November 2013. After heavy rain a few days before, the river was very high at 1.3m, too high for the intended UCUM -v- UCLAN Boater X. This race event was planned to be a social competition between my University of Cumbria (UCUM) paddling club and the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) paddling club. However due to many people dropping out the night before numbers to the event slowly dwindled and by the time we met at the river Leven there were a grand total of seven people from both unis. Clearly only the elite could manage boating on this day. Luckily I knew everyone that turned up and their paddling ability so making the decision to bench the race for another day was easy and we decided to paddle the whole river rather then just the top easier section. After a slow start the day went well. The group stopped to inspect each rapid before proceeding picking the best line suited to each individuals ability. We had two swimmers throughout the day, myself on Backbarrow Bridge rapid and Mike on a the last rapid of the day.

 

Backbarrow Bridge is a notorious spot in the Lake District for paddlers as the rapid is big, not easily inspected and intimidating due to the fact that there is a large stopper under the bridge that you can always see is there but you can't judge how large it really is. Due to this fact, only three of seven participants on the day paddled this rapid. In their larger boats Matt and Jack successfully managed to punch through the make or break stopper under the bridge however, I was not so lucky. The Boof stroke I put in on my right side was too weak to get the nose of my kayak over the foam pile of the stopper to then allow me to make progress through the stopper. Therefore the nose of my boat was taken by the water and I was flipped over, capsized. Feeling the water rush around my face I tucked up to protect it, something I had failed to do quick enough the time I broke my nose. Holding my breath still in my boat, I waited being thrown about by the water. I was waiting to be flushed out of the stopper into the large pool below where I knew I could roll up but I wasn't getting flushed. With this thought in my head, I held on one more moment hoping to feel the surface of the water with my paddle to then roll up, however, running out of breath I pulled my spray deck off to get out of my kayak and try swimming out of this sticky situation. 

 

Luckily by this point I had been flushed out and was on the edge of the stoppers grasp. As soon as I came up I took a large breath of air grateful to have made it out. I then started swimming to shore aided by my pal Tom. My boat unfortunately didn't get out of the grasp of the stopper and was thrown around before coming out and being rescued by the rest of the crew who also retrieved my blades (paddles), all before reaching 30m down river the looming Backbarrow Death Weir that is "unrunable" in a kayak. Looking back at the footage from Tom’s head cam I'm gutted I hadn't held on a little longer as when I came out my boat I would have been able to make that roll and paddle away in anger rather than swim away in shock. On the other hand, I feel it was a step that needed to be met at one point to make me less intimidated by these rapids and to allow me to focus on what needs to be done to conquer them.

The rest of the descent for me was great although a little chilly due to water coming in through my neck seal on my dry cag as it is split. It’s getting cold now and I’m not sure how many more kayaking session I'll be having before Christmas.

Travel Writing #1 Leven and Rothay

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Had two days paddling this week, both with Mike and Tom again. One full day on the top half of the River Leven, Cumbria, at a good level that produced a number of reasonable sized surf waves for me to practice on. Personally I've been really pushing to improve my ability and confidence on waves over the past few weeks and am starting to get comfortable at front surfing just need to work on my side and back surfing then I'll be flat spinning!!

My second day paddling was spent on the River Rothay, Cumbria. The river was super high and had burst its banks in certain areas. At this level the river produced some great sized waves which I was able to get on and surf most, which was a great success for myself. The river level made for the lower quarter to have some very precarious low tree branches that we had to slalom our way through. One set caught me off guard and decided to catch my paddle and brush me over.

The danger of tree branches hanging into/over the river (strainers) is that, if you get caught up in them there is a good chance of you getting caught up in them for a while possibly underwater. Add in the factor that no kayakers on earth yet have developed gills makes them very dangerous.

Mike and Tom on the Leven

After going over, in that moment of my C to C roll when finding the top of the water I remember thinking to myself "If I don't roll up now there is a good chance I could die". Knowing this must have made my brain and muscles go into a state of fight (or flight) mode, as I performed my best roll to date, super quick and tucked up forward ready to paddle to avoid the next set of branches. We then paddled down the rest of the river with no problems. All paddlers had done great, Mike had put on some great braces stopping himself from swimming and Tom had lead us down safely.

The banks of the Leven are lined with trees to, less lethal though at this water level.

We then came to the mouth of the flooded Rothay to recognise a friend’s boat floating upside down and people running towards it. We then also blasted towards it to see what was going on. Turns out our friend Bob and Chris had been paddling Stock Ghyll which flows into the Rothay and both swam. Chris was here. Where was Bob? No one knew where Bob was. We then attained as much information from Chris as possible about his last whereabouts to try and find him with the looming possibility that he had not managed to get out the river after coming out his boat and was stuck under the trees/ fences we had encountered earlier. We split up into three teams to search the three obvious locations where he could be stranded. At this point we could have been looking for a dead body. Luckily on our way, now running across flooded fields I see and hear Bob, safe and walking across the fields towards us. Turns out a miss communication and maybe lack of leadership created the confusion and thoughts, that our friend might be dead. We then went on to luckily find Chris's black blades and throwline at the entrance to Windermere along with the rest of the debris being washed out by the high waters. 

This was a crazy end to the day and shone a light on a real scenario/consequence that could well happen in the future due to the nature of my our sport. I often hear of kayakers that have passed away on the rivers all the stories are harrowing.

Twelve Hour Timelapse

This week has been a busy week for me mainly due to my new part time job at the Sands Center, Carlisle where I help build stages for concerts and theater productions. Its tough work and sometimes late hours but good pay to fill the car up with petrol so I can go Kayaking!

Unfortunately, since my last post, I have managed to get out kayaking only once and it wasn't the most successful trip to date either. The trip has been named as "The Reconnaissance Session". Our intended plan was for paddling on the River Kent (Kent Gorge to Force Falls section). However unforeseen problems lead to our team arriving at the river later then planned and with the now winter sun starting to set around 1630, getting on the river that you have never run before around 1500 wasn't ideal. However we carried on paddling the top three rapids. Portaged the weir "you really don't want to run". Then ended up portaging the rest of the rapids on the river due to the light levels, the fact that none of us had run these rapid before and weren't overly confident running them anyway. Not a total fail of a trip as we now have inspected the rapids and different lines we might want to run in the near future hopefully.

I had another go at creating a time lapse this week. Inside this time. The time lapse was over a period of roughly twelve hours and was during my work time. I left my camera to capture the building of the stage for the band Rizzle Kicks. The clip has come out well and I'm just waiting for approval from The Sands Center to add some music to it then they plan to pass it onto the company SJB that manages Rizzle Kicks's tour, could be beneficial. Video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvLU285v6Mw

Tuesday night was spent in Kendal watching a presentation by Dom Bush about his inspirations in the adventure film making industry and showed some his own work. A good chilled out event.

Today again I spent my time in Kendal at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. A great event where i was representing my university in the its yurt that had been setup to promote the uni. I also manged to escape that and watch a few ski films. Interviewed some adventure and media freelancers for my D..d...d.... (I dare not type it). Ate a load of free samples and gained a many freebies from the stalls there. The best freebies being the coat water-reproofing spray and wash which will save me £30. Brilliant!

Greta

This week has sped by. Last Wednesday I managed again to get out paddling on the River Greta with Tom and Mike. This time however it had rained heavily the night before putting the level of the river well above the normal height that we had paddled it at before. This height was great and a good test of my ability and this time when paddling down rather then avoiding the rocks we had to avoid the large holes that had appeared. The level also created a number of reasonable surf waves in some good locations for practicing. I managed to get on and stay on a few of these waves for a solid amount of time which I'm happy about. Half way down, unfortunately, Mike took a swim and after we had got Mike out the water Tom and I went charging after his boat and blades which we managed to recover. For me a superb day having started off a little nervous about getting on the river at the level it was at to finding that I was more then capable at the level it was at.

More Paddling again at the weekend. I attended the Tyne Tour in Hexham. This event was a great social and although I didn't consider the paddling to be that great it was nice to meet new people and catch up with some people I hadn't seen for a while. I particularly enjoyed the Ceilidh, a Scottish dance, twinned with drinking kept us warm throughout Saturday night.

Oh the clocks have gone back!

It took me a whole day to realize that the clocks have gone back this week.

For me this week has gone slow. I've been sat at home the majority of the week attempting to read for my dissertation and have also been learning to use the program Adobe After Effects. I succeded in what i wanted to achieve with this program and this was create an animate outro sequence to add onto the end of my Online videos to show that it was me who created them. See the develoupment of the outro here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/HARTridethestorm

I also this week had my second Adventure Travel Writing lecture. This was a very useful discussion about how in the future for the module we will be needing to keep a blog to get marked on. Therefore expect the content of my blog to become slightly more focused and thought-out over the coming months.

Below is an image of a screen shot of what Adobe After Effects looks like, technical.

Dark Nights Week

Autumn is definitely here as I'm having to clear my cars window before I use it each time to get out on adventures. Managed to paddle a rocky low Upper Derwent and good level Greta on Friday. The Upper Derwent was ok, mainly very scrappy however had one good areawith a strong eddy line to play on that flushed out into a pool. I managed to swap into my friends older Pyranha Inazone it has a really slicey stern to it allowing me to throw down some pirouettes on the eddy line which helped practicing my support strokes. After doing the Upper Derwent the Greta ended up being quite challenging. Having already been paddling half the day to then go onto paddle a fast pushy grade III. Whilst also having to lead my friend Mike down the rapids. This was made harder as he was in a faster boat then me so I was having to blast it in the amrs to keep in front of him.

Last night I spent on the west side of Ulswater sleeping under the stars with just our cameras and sleeping bags. This was super fun and I had my frist attempt at getting a picture of star trails. A picture that shows the path of the stars across the sky in one image. The night was fairly clear and constellations were easily visible with the help of an App on Carrie's smartphone. The was also the planet Jupiter visible (white stream to the right of the picture).

Photo Boating

My boating is finally getting up to scratch. Yesterday I spent half the day on the river kayaking with friends Tom and Mike. We paddled the River Greta, a river i have paddled a number of times now and voted in the top 50 rivers to paddle in the UK. Having paddled the river a number of time I have now grown the confidence to take my camera along for the ride. I used my waterproof Peli-case to transport my camera between my legs as we traveled down the river. I would then descend the rapids, staying in line of sight, to a point where I could take photos of Mike and Tom coming down the rapid. This was very interesting as this would be Mike's first real taste of white water kayaking and has taken a steep learning curve to get to the level the river required that day. Luckily Mike was very determined and if he capsized he would wait for Tom or myself to quickly assist him preforming a eskimo rescue.

Below is a sequence of a time Mike went over.

That evening I attended a university residential teaching the first year students on Adventure & Wildlife Media the basics of how to use and look after the equipment they would be using throughout their course. After this had finished Carrie, Ross and I stayed up till 2.30am trying our hands at capturing a time lapse of the stars that went quite well. Below is one photo from the sequence that shows a shooting star. 

Like to full timelapse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKP4ZneihSg

Boating, Finally!

Wow having a car makes such a difference in ease to getting out paddling and with there having been plenty of rain in the lakes this has lead to plenty of paddling in the past week, super. Sometime before all this rain hit I managed to dig out some footage of my friends Mat and Pete paddling on the Upper River Swale and using my new laptop have created four very short videos showing four of the five main drops on the river. These videos can either be viewed on my Youtube or Vimeo channels. Dont forget to Follow or Subscribe.

Youtube > http://www.youtube.com/user/HARTridethestorm
Vimeo   > https://vimeo.com/hartrts

Before returning to Uni

After having returned home from America I spent a short time at home where I actually managed to get out kayaking once at Bournemouth Pier surf kayaking, it was very strange and the first time in a long while I had been paddling on the sea, it was awesome. The waves at the pier ranged between 3-5ft. Mat and I had picked a great day to go out. Managed to catch some good waves and then usually ended up getting whipped out which was great for practicing my roll in moving water in a relatively safe environment I.e where I'm not going to smash my face in... again. However I did manage break one of my GoPro attachments, how I do not know.

Following my time at home I then ventured forth In my expensive go-kart to West Snowdonia, Wales. To again meet Mat and spend the next two days camping and walking based out of the Ogwen Valley. The third day was spent climbing in the morning then kayaking in the afternoon. We paddled a section of the River Dee. I did well on this grade III descent no swims, one roll, at Town Falls when everyone was watching. That afternoon got me reacquainted to wearing clothes again whilst paddling as had spent the last fourteen weeks paddling in just boardshorts, BA and lid.

The next two days were what our trip was all about, Pyranha Fest 2012! From last year i have definitely improved my boating. This year again on the Tryweryn, I felt a lot more comfortable giving it a good effort and making a lot more eddies then last year, a few rolls and only one swim on the last quick run of the weekend. Now I've got my car I should be able to also keep getting out (whilst doing my work, dad) and keep my ability up and hopefully get some more footage of my adventures. Looking forward to the uni year ahead.